Professor Drushca Lalloo
- Honorary Professor (School of Health & Wellbeing)
email:
Drushca.Lalloo@glasgow.ac.uk
Public Health, Healthy Working Lives Group, 1 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow
Biography
Current posts:
- Honorary Professor in Occupational Medicine, University of Glasgow
- Deputy Head, Healthy Working Lives Group, University of Glasgow
- Consultant Physician in Occupational Medicine, Integral Occupational Health Ltd
I joined Professor Ewan Macdonald's team at the Healthy Working Lives Group in 2013 as an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer and Researcher.
In 2021, I became an Honorary Professor and Deputy Head of the Group.
Educational Qualifications:
- MBChB: University of Glasgow, 1997.
- J.C.P.T.G.P: Joint Commitee on Postgraduate Training for General Practice Certification, 2002.
- MRCGP (Exam): Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners Exam, 2003.
- Adv Dip in OM: Advanced Diploma in Occupational Medicine, University of Manchester, 2006.
- FFOM (UK): Fellowship of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, London, 2017.
- FFOM (IRL): Fellowship of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland, 2019.
Current Academic studies:
PhD candidate in Occupational Health, University of Glasgow, (20/03/17 – present)
- Part-time, jointly between SPHSU/MRC and PH.
- Title: Health and health behaviours of Information technology (IT) workers in the UK Biobank.
Key positions:
- Chair of the Scottish Group of the Society of Occupational Medicine (Feb 2015- August 2017).
- Member of Expert Advisory Group to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (Jan 2019- October 2019).
- Appointed Member of the Short-Life Working Advisory Group to Scottish Government on Terminal Illness for Disability Assistance (July 2018- Nov 2019).
- West of Scotland representative of the Scottish Group of the Society of Occupational Medicine (Sept 2009- Feb 2015).
Other activities
- Scottish Occupational Health Action Group (SOHAG), Co-Chair (Feb 2021- present)
- UK OH COVID-19 Support and Strategy Group, Member (2020 - present)
- UK Centre for Work and Health Strategy Group, (Member (2019 - 2020)
- Local organising committee, 26th EPICOH Conference, Edinburgh, Member (2017)
- UK OH Academic Forum, Member (2016 - present)
- Organising and research committee for EASOM International Conference, Glasgow, Co-Chair (2014)
- UK Association of Physician Health (UKAPH), Member (2013-2015)
Research interests
My research activities date back to a 4th year medical school dermatology elective at the University of California, San Francisco with Prof Howard Maibach in 1996, that resulted in my first publication.
Research Aims:
My research aims are to improve the well-being, maximise the functional potential and reduce health inequalities of the working-age population through cutting-edge, policy informing and clinical practice research.
As a practising Consultant Occupational Physician, a significant proportion of my research is clinical and I am a strong supporter of conducting research that is relevant to and that can be translated into practice.
Research interests/themes:
1. Sickness absence management
- Including early interventions to facilitate return to work
2. Specific occupational group studies
- Lead author on the largest to date study of IT worker health (2021) and doctor and dentist health studies.
3. Competencies and training in occupational health (OH)
- Led a series of training competency studies in occupational medicine using a modified Delphi technique that we developed, which has been adopted in other research studies. This body of work entailed the first international study of common core competencies for specialist occupational physicians; the first UK study of training competencies for OH nurses and the first comparison between OH physician and nurse competencies.
4. Occupational Health research studies
- Lead author of a review commissioned by the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM) on ‘The Value of Occupational Health research’, funded by the Health & Safety Executive, UK. This was published at a formal launch at The House of Lords in June 2019 by SOM Patron, Lord David Blunkett. The review has been the driver for the development of a designated national centre for work and health research.
- Led a study of current research priorities of UK OH physicians and OH researchers (using the same modified Delphi technique we devised for the competency studies).
5. Clinical quality improvement in occupational health (OH)
- Co-led the development of the first clinical algorithms for OH practice.
- Led the development of peer-review audit processes and studies to evaluate OH report quality (the main output of the OH assessment). Recent peer-review audit collaboration with colleagues in Ireland funded by the Health Services Executive, (Ireland) and Doughty fund of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland.
- Lead author of the first study of clinical case complexity in OH, with development of a conceptual framework model.
6. Covid-19
- Led the development of a clinical tool for OH and health professionals to help advise on return to work for the clinically extremely vulnerable, published by the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM) in September 2020.
- Lead author of further return to work SOM guidelines (for employees, employers and health professionals) in April 2021 which, for the first time, took account of community prevalence, vaccination status and previous Covid-19 infection in the risk assessment.
- Co-authored a BMJ Editorial on safely returning the clinically vulnerable to work.
Selected recent publications:
- Lalloo, D., Gallagher, J., Macdonald, E. and McDonnell, C. (2021) Clinical case complexity in occupational health: contributing factors and a proposed conceptual framework model. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(6), e352-e361.(doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002215) (PMID:33950037)
- Lalloo, D., Williams, A., Roy, M., MacDonald, E. and Rayner, C. (2021) COVID-19 Return to Work in the Roadmap Out of Lockdown: Guidelines for Workers, Employers and Health Practitioners. Society of Occupational Medicine, London.
- Lalloo, D., Lewsey, J. , Katikireddi, V. , MacDonald, E. and Demou, E. (2021) Health, lifestyle and occupational risks in Information Technology workers. Occupational Medicine, 71(2), pp. 68-74. (doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa222) (PMID:33515462) (PMCID:PMC8034523)
- MacDonald, E., Middleton, J., Lalloo, D. and Greenhalgh, T. (2020) Safely returning clinically vulnerable people to work. British Medical Journal, 370 m3600. (doi: 10.1136/bmj.m3600) (PMID:32958471)
- Blair, S.C. and Lalloo, D. (2020). A Manifesto for Occupational Health in Scotland. Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland.
Grants
Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.
- Prediction and Prevention of Job Loss for Aging Workers
National Institute for Health Research
2023 - 2024
Teaching
Posts:
- Honorary Professor – Healthy Working Lives Group (HWLG), (October 2021 - present)
- Honorary Clinical Associate Professor – Healthy Working Lives Group (HWLG), (October 2020 - October 2021)
- Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer – Healthy Working Lives Group (HWLG)(October 2013-October 2020)
Postgraduate: Co-lead the running of University of Glasgow OH postgraduate courses held by the HWLG (i.e. Asbestos, OH report writing skills, Hand-Arm Vibration, Ionising Radiation, Lead, Leadership and Management, Case Management).
Undergraduate: Co-lead on Occupational Medicine teaching to 4th year medical students at University of Glasgow introducing them to the principles of the specialty.
Professional activities & recognition
Selected international presentations
- 2017: 26TH Epidemiology Conference in Occupational Health (EPICOH) (Edinburgh)
- 2016: 25TH Epidemiology Conference in Occupational Health (EPICOH) (Barcelona)
- 2014: International conference on Physician’s health (ICPH) (London)
- 2014: EASOM (European association for the Schools of Occupational Medicine) International conference (Glasgow)
Supplementary
- Key positions: • Chair of the Scottish Group of the Society of Occupational Medicine (Feb 2015- August 2017). • Member of Expert Advisory Group to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (Jan 2019- October 2019). • Appointed Member of the Short-Life Working Advisory Group to Scottish Government on Terminal Illness for Disability Assistance (July 2018- Nov 2019). • West of Scotland representative of the Scottish Group of the Society of Occupational Medicine (Sept 2009- Feb 2015).